Fantasy Genealogy

A woman wrote that she was descended from “almost all of the Magna Carta Sureties.” I advised that several of them either had no known issue or their line was extinct within four or five generations. She became very upset, said I was just jealous. I didn’t hear from her again.

I don’t know of any Magna Carta Sureties in my lines. My sister has some. She’s a Calvert descendant. It doesn’t seem to make her life better or worse. She may not even be aware of it because she’s not terribly into genealogy.

Frankly, if I were going to pick a noted ancestor I’d want it to be one of the Yorkists, the later Plantagenets. I just find them more interesting. Alas, I think that is highly unlikely.

I have seen one of my lines traced back to Adam online. A genealogist of some regard thinks one of my lines goes back to Charlemagne. I don’t believe either one.

I have ancestors who were Revolutionary War veterans, War of 1812 veterans and Civil War veterans. Isn’t that enough? There are plenty of people who would happy for those. I have Huguenots. I have Dutch settlers and those who were in Jamestown and early New England. No Pilgrims though. No Kings either. There is a thief who was transported, barely escaping death at Old Bailey*.

What is with us that we need to have fantasy pedigrees to someone famous? Isn’t a thief we can prove better than an fantasy online pedigree hooking us to Cleopatra?